Member Articles

Enjoy our extensive collection of member-contributed articles to learn how other Scrum practitioners use Scrum in the workplace.

Read about the experiences and ideas of Agile colleagues around the world, and share your own thoughts here. You can also visit Spotlight, which features blogs by experts in the fields of Scrum, Agile, and the broader business world.

Opinions represent those of the authors and not of Scrum Alliance. The sharing of member-contributed content on this site does not imply endorsement of specific Scrum methods or practices beyond those taught by Scrum Alliance Certified Trainers and Coaches.

I recently interviewed for a coaching role. The teams were definitely having problems; the good news is that an Agile coach can slowly untangle all the issues. But here's the key: Scrum works, but scrambled Scrum does not.

I was toying with the idea of a game around work in progress (WIP), which can be incredibly stressful for teams. As part of a group effort at a meeting, we came up with a result that covers even more than my original intentions.

Traditional methods of project management have always found it challenging to embrace change. Is there a different potential approach toward managing work? We need a method that has seamless and nimble acceptance of change.

Whether we realize it or not, we live in an age of anxiety, a condition in which the mind is pulled in different directions. This results in an emotional state of distress that dominates our thoughts. It is a reaction to our circumstances, but it's also a choice.

Scrum seems to be a bit like bread: When it is fresh, it is very tasty, and everybody likes a slice of it. But after a few sprints doing the same routines for planning, dailies, reviews, and retrospectives, Scrum may turn stale.

What business wouldn't want to reduce waste, build a culture of knowledge, minimize risk, maximize the delivered business value, and be able to swiftly adopt to changing business needs or economic conditions. . . . Then why do some organizations accept so much waste?